Local approval is one of the first hurdles companies must overcome to get the tax breaks they want. The deadline to get tax breaks in 2010 is October 31st. That means there's a surge of projects in front of local city councils and commissions.

Next month’s General Motors’ big stock offering is expected to be much less than at one time predicted.

The GM Initial Public Offering is expected to hit the market around November 18th.

When GM initially started talking about selling stock, the speculation was that November’s sale could be easily one of the largest initial public offerings in history. Perhaps generating more than $16 billion.

Now some analysts are predicting the GM IPO will collect only about $6 billion.

A new survey shows this year's ArtPrize attracted more people from outside Grand Rapids than last year's contest. Preliminary numbers show half the people who participated in ArtPrize came from outside of the Grand Rapids area. Only 6% came from outside of Michigan.

Michigan’s home foreclosure rate has stabilized, but is still much higher than the national rate. One out of every 98 homes in the state is in the foreclosure process.

Daren Bloomquist is a spokeman for RealtyTrac, a company that tracks foreclosures.

“In Michigan I would say the number one issue is unemployment. It's still there and so that's still pushing people into foreclosure. Until we solve that problem, you're still going to see an elevated level of foreclosures in Michigan," Bloomquist said.

General Motors (or should I say General Motors Holding Company) is planning to hold a public stock sale in mid-November. It will be the first since the world's largest company emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization last year.

According to new data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau, 14% of people in Michigan last year lived in poverty. As the Detroit News reports that is, "the highest for the state since it hit 14.1 percent in 1994.'' Nationally, in 2009, the poverty rate was 14.3%. That means 1 in 7 people, or 43.6 million Americans, lived in poverty last year.

Michigan's jobless rate remained steady from July to August. The state umployment rate was 13.1% The nation's August unemployment rate was 9.6%, up from 9.5% in July. Michigan has the nation's second highest jobless rate. Nevada has the highest.

A report from the Institute for Policy Studies looked at CEO compensation from the 50 companies that layed off more workers during the recession. They found the CEOs at these companies are paid more, on average, than the average pay for the CEOs running to top 500 companies in the U.S. (S&P 500).

Sarah Anderson is the lead author of the report. She says,

"CEOs are squeezing workers to boost short-term profits and fatten their own paychecks."

The unemployment picture in Michigan is still bad. It stands at 13.1% now. The worst it's been since the early 1980's.

Now, a new report by the Michigan League for Human Services puts the long-term unemployment picture into perspective. In 2000, people unemployed for more than 26 weeks, accounted for 6.5% of the total number of unemployed. Today, the long-term unemployed account for 40.8% of the unemployed.

Developers in Benton Harbor hope a new resort and Jack Nicklaus signature golf course will improve the economically depressed city. But plans call for three of the golf holes to be built inside Jean Klock Park, next to Lake Michigan beachfront. Activists hoping to save the park have sued in federal court, but construction at the park is underway. Officials with Harbor Shores Redevelopment say they are not building the golf course holes, but instead are working on park improvements as part of a lease agreement with the city.